Emily Jean Rawei (née Sizemore; 10 February 1873 – 15 October 1939), known by the stage name Hine Taimoa, was a New Zealand Māori lecturer and singer, with her husband, Wherahiko Francis Rawei, and other family members. The family toured internationally from the 1890s through the 1910s to demonstrate and speak on Māori culture.
Early life and family Emily Jean Sizemore was born on 10 February 1873, the fourth daughter of James and Sarah Sizemore (née Thomson), and was of both Māori and European descent. Her paternal grandparents were whaler Richard Sizemore, who was the brother-in-law of Johnny Jones, and Waniwani also known as Waiuwaiu from the Bay of Islands area/and daughter of a Ngapuhi Rangatira . On 1 January 1893, Emily Sizemore married Francis Rawei at her mother's property, Woodend Farm, in Waikouaiti.
Career The Rawei family toured internationally, singing, telling stories, and presenting a magic lantern show of hand-coloured scenes from Māori life in New Zealand."Cremorne: The Land of the Maori and the Diamond Jubilee" The West Australian (11 September 1897): 5. via Trove They started their travels in Australia in 1893, with a show called "Land of the Maori" that included Hine's sister, Hari Taimoa."Land of the Maori" The Telegraph (15 September 1898): 5. via Trove "Her voice is full and beautiful, and her speech the essence of refinement," noted an 1898 Australian reporter of Hine Taimoa."The Land of the Maori" The Queenslander (24 September 1898): 601. via Trove The also made appearances in England, in 1897."Maoriland and the Maoris" The Colonies and India (23 January 1897): 16. via Newspapers.com"Rawei and Hine Taimoa" The West Australian (8 November 1897): 3. via Trove
They toured the United States from their arrival at New York in 1903 into the 1910s,Sean Brawley, Chris Dixon, The South Seas: A Reception History from Daniel Defoe to Dorothy Lamour (Lexington Books 2015): 139-142. lecturing and performing on the Chautauqua and lyceum circuit"Native Polynesians Now Touring America" Lyceum News (May 1912): 10.Clare Slako, "Running Away to Join the Chautauqua Circuits: Charles Henry Poole and Wherahiko Rawei Take New Zealand to Rural America 1900 to 1930" Melbourne Historical Journal 39 (2011): 55-79. in the United States and Canada.Hine Taimoa Rawei, "My Own People" Star Press (6 December 1908): 14. via Newspapers.com They also gave their presentation, titled "The New Zealanders in Song, Story, and Picture: From Cannibalism to Culture",Paige Lush, Music in the Chautauqua Movement: From 1874 to the 1930s (McFarland 2013): 99-101. at museums and teachers' conventions. Taimoa was also called upon to speak on women's suffrage (because New Zealand women had the vote before American women),"Mrs. Hine Rawei Defends Woman" Indianapolis Star (28 March 1914): 9. via Newspapers.com on the preparation of food and clothing,"Mrs. Rawei Describes New Zealand" The Leader (23 March 1926): 3. via Newspapers.com and on American childrearing practices (she considered them less healthful compared to those of Māori parents)."Would Mark Chins of All Married Women" Lyceum News (December 1913): 12. She was not impressed with life in Chicago, where the family were based during some of their time in North America. Their children Piwa (Eva) and Rae were sometimes included in their act."Mrs. Rawei Coming" Republican-Northwestern (28 October 1905): 8. via Newspapers.com"A Night in New Zealand" Wellington Daily News (10 July 1912): 2. via Newspapers.com
After being injured in a car accident in Georgia in 1925, Francis Rawei's health deteriorated, and the couple decided to return to New Zealand. In Avarua in the Cook Islands, Francis Rawei died on 27 January 1928. Taimoa continued to New Zealand, and died in Wellington on 15 October 1939. She was buried at Waikouaiti.
References
External links A 1914 program from the Raweis' performances in the United States, from "Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century" Redpath Chautauqua Collection, University of Iowa Libraries, Special Collections Department.